In a replay of last year, the House on Wednesday attached a major education policy bill to the state budget, spurring a debate on controversial issues such as a voucher-like program for students who are bullied and an effort to weaken teachers’ unions. The House Appropriations Committee voted 20-8 for the 198-page budget “conforming” bill…
Legislative committees considered several bills of interest today, including, most notably, bills relating school board member term limits and school district accountability. Please click on the link below for our report on the outcome of the consideration of these bills and others that were considered today. Tomorrow, the Appropriations Committees in both chambers will be…
Legislative committees considered several bills of interest today, including bills relating to student safety and health, juvenile justice, public meetings, school funding, early learning, and curriculum. Please click on the link below for our report on the outcome for these bills and others. Tomorrow, legislators will consider several more bills of interest, most notably, bills…
Florida lawmakers moved last week to expand the state’s school voucher programs — pushing to create a new one for bullied students — even as they also worked to impose more rules on participating private schools.The state’s three current voucher, or scholarship, programs pay private school tuition for 140,000 students statewide, serving youngsters from low-income…
The Constitution Revision Commission Education Committee met this afternoon to consider several important education-related proposals to amend the Florida Constitution, including, among others, proposals relating to public and charter school authorizers, school choice programs, and the prohibition against using public revenues in aid of religious entities. You may wish to review our Discussion and Key…
A giant K-12 education package bill had its first public presentation on Thursday in the House Education Committee, where it passed despite light criticism from Democrats who requested more time to review its many provisions. The bill, which was posted online Tuesday night on the committee’s page, addresses a myriad of issues such as accountability of…
Several bills of interest were considered today including a significant Proposed Committee Bill (PCB) by the House Education Committee that addresses private school accountability, school choice programs, district flexibility, and a new reading scholarship program. Other bills of interest address early learning, students with disabilities, public meetings and records, and labor organizations. Please click on…
Florida House Speaker Richard Corcoran made one thing perfectly clear after the passage of the omnibus education bill HB 7069 in the spring: You ain’t seen nothing yet. “We will continue to have zero tolerance for a system that determines a child’s destiny based on demographics,” Corcoran intoned in his session opening remarks in January. Exactly…
Today, the House Appropriations Subcommittee chairs released their budget proposals for their specific budget areas. The initial proposal submitted by House PreK-12 Appropriations Subcommittee chair Manny Diaz provides more than $21 billion in FEFP funding — an increase of more than $506.8 million or 2.46%. This increase is due, in part, by allowing the Required…
This will be a busy week with several bills of interest under consideration throughout the week, release of budget proposals from the chairs of the House and Senate Appropriations Subcommittees on Tuesday and Wednesday, and meetings of the Constitution Revision Commission Committees scheduled for Thursday and Friday. Please click on the link below for the…